I found this article interesting simply because it shows the power of the emerging Vietnamese American voice and the effect it can have on political campaigns as well as the targeting of the Vietnamese American community.
The amateurish mailer features a blurry color photo of Carrasco next to an image of the flag of Vietnam, a flag most Vietnamese-Americans find offensive because it represents the communist government in their homeland.
Carrasco's campaign manager, Luis Tapia, said Sunday that the malicious mailer was brought to the candidate's attention on Saturday when upset Vietnamese-American voters began calling the campaign office. "We were very surprised by it," he said, "because it looks and purports to be sent out by us. It illegally uses our committee name and FPPC number."
Tapia said he did not know how many voters received the mailer, but that the campaign office had fielded about a dozen phone calls, all from Vietnamese-American voters, "so we're left to extrapolate that it was just targeting the Vietnamese community." An estimated 10 percent of the voters in District 5 are of Vietnamese heritage. Carrasco called the mailer "disgusting."
